TERROR SUSPECT ARRESTED IN JAKARTA

The fugitive leader of a Singapore terror network who threatened to crash a plane into the island nation's airport was arrested in neighboring Indonesia, police said Monday.

Mas Selamat bin Kastari, who fled Singapore a year ago after authorities began rounding up terror suspects there, was nabbed on the nearby Indonesian island of Bintan, said Indonesian Lt. Gen. Erwin Mappaseng, head of the criminal investigation bureau.

Police had been following Kastari as he traveled to Bintan by ferry from the island of Sumatra, Mappaseng said. He was carrying a fake identity card and passport when police moved in and arrested him Sunday evening.

"He was supposed to be picked up by his friends from Singapore, but those Singaporeans did not turn up," Mappaseng said. It is unclear whether he was attempting to re-enter Singapore, a two-hour boat ride from Bintan.

The arrest of Kastari is a significant step for Indonesian authorities, who until the Oct. 12 Bali bombing had been reluctant to acknowledge that international terrorists were operating in their territory.

The Singapore government said Kastari is the Singapore head of the Jemaah Islamyiah terror network, a Southeast Asia terror group that is affiliated with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

A Singapore government spokeswoman said officials had been informed of the arrest and were seeking to confirm that the man in custody was Kastari.

Jemaah Islamyiah, which seeks to establish an Islamic state in Southeast Asia, is blamed for the Bali bombing that killed nearly 200 people and a foiled plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy and other targets in Singapore with suicide truck bombs. It is also responsible for dozens of other attacks that have killed more than 40 people in the region.

Kastari fled Singapore with several associates in December 2001 after authorities uncovered the Singapore plot and began arresting Jemaah Islamyiah members.

In a recent report, the Singapore government cited Kastari as a threat to the small country's security.

Authorities say he and other terror suspects had discussed ways of retaliating against Singapore for breaking up the Jemaah Islamyiah network there. One plan he considered was hijacking a commercial U.S., British or Singapore plane and crashing it into Singapore's Changi Airport.

Hours before Indonesian police announced Kastari's arrest, a bomb exploded at national police headquarters in Jakarta. No one was hurt in the blast, which damaged a building and at least one car, but the incident embarrassed police officials.

Cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the suspected leader of Jemaah Islamyiah, is being held at the same compound. Richard C. Paddock writes for the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Co. newspaper.